Module 2 Paper

Brandon Hults

Our reading this week aimed to discuss the importance of decision making within the context of

project management. Making good decisions requires time and effort to consider options and gather

information. When thinking about some of the biggest take away points, I have gathered from this week

the first that comes to mind is that good decision making begins with context. In A Project Manager’s

Guide to Making Successful Decisions, the authors stressed the importance of understanding decision

context when you are making decisions. This context includes what kind of resources you might have

available to you, the goals of your organization or from your stakeholders and the current timeline as

well. Having the most context and the highest level of understanding of your current situation is what

will help make better and more informed decisions. In the simulation to make decisions I needed to look

at what kind of budget we had available and how on schedule we are before making decisions about

adding or reducing the amount of staff we had to use. In the first go of the simulation I got myself into a

bit of trouble when I ignored some of the context of the situation that was available to me. I finished the

simulation way over budget and the score I received reflected that. When going at it again I looked more

carefully at what I was spending in terms of staff and how we were spending our time. Having looked

more carefully I adjusted to make sure that I was spending resources more responsible and smarter.

Another change that I made from the first simulation is that I looked more carefully at each week how

far we were deviating from the management targets. If I changed something and it had a negative

effect, I needed to look at fixing that rather than just doubling down and going over budget like I had

originally done.

The textbook discussed in depth why projects fail, and I think this was a very valuable portion to

read about because often we don’t understand why until it’s too late. The text stated on page 8 that
many projects fail because of the following three overarching objectives has been missed: meeting the

budget, finishing on schedule, or meeting client specifications. These three objectives are something

that need to be considered when making decisions and in general throughout the entire life of the

project. Taking a more in depth look at meeting client specifications I believe one of the blogs I read

called Back from Red Blog had some great insight on how communication of direction effects this. The

blog post talked about how the team can set goals, but they need to be translated into executable

projects or tasks. If you can’t communicate goals and understand what the sponsor is looking for from

the project, it will struggle every step of the way. Everyone must have a clear picture of the company’s

goals and it begins with leadership that understands them and can communicate them to the team. In

the simulation I realized how important it was to have the one on one coaching, the daily standups,

status reviews, and prototypes. These activities are in the simulation because they are meant to help

foster communication and they allow the team to stay on the same page throughout the course of the

project. Over the summer I work as the Waterski Director for JCC Camp Chi. During the first week of the

summer my team is tasked with getting our area completely set up and ready for programming. I meet

with the camp Director daily to discuss our progress and make sure what we are doing is lining up with

what they want and that our timeline is lining up. Sometimes things will come up and we need to adjust

our strategy and move things around. Boat training falls in this week and therefore we need to have

docks in place and boats in the water for these days. In a camp environment we need to be prepared to

change and adjust our direction because plans get changed often. I make sure that the needs that are

coming from the camp director are being communicated daily with my team. We sit down and go over

any changes and we look ahead and plan out each day as a team. Including them in the process allows

the entire team to have a better understanding of our goals and our direction. The blog mentioned how

executives need to create and communicate clean concise direction and engage their staff in

spearheading detailed plans to implement it. This style of more distributed leadership is something that
 I think allows a team to have a better grasp on the objectives of a project. A second blog from

projectmanagement.com highlighted some important things that relate to this. It talked about how the

team needs to communicate their shared values to understand their sense of purpose. Often team

members feel like they aren’t being heard and that can be detrimental to a team’s success. One on one

coaching is a great tool to help your team make sure that their individual purpose is being fulfilled and it

helps build trust within your team. I found that in the simulation that one on one coaching led to

happier and more satisfied teams and a better score. In my own work I have valued one on one

mentoring relationships as we worked on starting that up formally last summer. I was able to have

someone that I trusted and could go to when I needed advice on direction, or anything related to the

team. On my team I would make sure to take the time to work with my staff one on one and it allowed

me to better understand what strengths we had and what needed to be worked on. Working on a team

these interactions can sometimes be overlooked. When they are embraced and become a part of the

process, they can have a lot of benefit to the outcome of any project and the overall satisfaction of each

member of the team.

References:

Powell, Robert Col. Buede, Dennis. (2009). Project Manager’s Guide to Making Successful

Decisions - 1.3 Why Projects Fail. Management Concepts, Inc.. Retrieved from 

https://app.knovel.com/hotlink/pdf/id:kt009LRSU3/project-manager-s-guide/why-projects-fail

High-Performance Teams Are Purpose-Driven. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/40872/High-Performance-Teams-Are-Purpose-

Driven
Williams, T. C. (n.d.). Strategy-Execution Gaps. Retrieved from

https://ecaminc.com/index.php/blog/item/464-strategy-execution-gaps